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In What Ways are the Accounts of the Graeco Romans and the Chinese Helpful in Reconstructing the Social History of India?

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Get the answer of : In what ways are the accounts of the Graeco Romans and the Chinese helpful in reconstructing the social history of India?

Most stunning accounts of ancient India have been provided by the visiting foreigners. The Greeks who accompanied Alexander the Great in his Indian campaign recorded their encounters of this mystical, magical land.

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Although much of these works are now lost, the details have percolated into subsequent Greek literature. Special reference can be made of the Indica by Megasthenes who lived in the court of Chandragupta Maurya, of Periplus of the Erythrean Sea by an unknown businessman (second half of 1st century A.D) and The Geography of India by Ptolemy (about 130 A.D.).

After the spread of Buddhism, Chinese travelers came to India in big numbers to collect religious books and to visit the holy places of Buddhism. Works of Fa-Hien (5th century A.D), Hewn-Tsang (7th century A.D.) and I-Tsing (7th century A.D.) are important historical accounts. The foreign accounts, while lacking native understanding of the complex culture of ancient Indians, do provide valuable objective documentation as also confirm some of the glories claimed in Indian inscriptions.

The Smritis and accounts of Fa-Hien are the chief sources of knowledge about the social life of the Guptas. Fa-Hien had stayed in India for a long period of 9 years, from 401 to 410 A.D. and visited various places of north India, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal. He had spent several years in Pataliputra and Tamralipta. Therefore he could have had a firsthand knowledge of the social life of the Guptas.

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According to his accounts, people were very happy during the period of the Guptas and were free to move anywhere. Since public morality was very high during that time, therefore criminal law was lenient. People were mainly vegetarian and did not even eat onion or garlic. The habit of drinking wine among people was rare. Only the Chandalas and the sweepers drank wine and ate meat. However, they lived outside the towns and villages.

The representation of society as described by Fa-Hien depicts that town-dwellers lived a comfortable life and enjoyed a good standard of living. People living in the outskirts, like the Chandalas, were not so well of. Villagers lived on the production of their own cultivations and products manufactured by their artisans. “Kamasutra” indicates the comfortable life of the well-to-do citizens of towns.

“Kamasutra” depicts the refinement and leisure of city life. It is presumed by historians that the city people beguiled themselves with poetry, writing and painting. Gatherings were held where poetry was recited and dancing performances were held. Youth of upper classes played the lute and practiced singing and even received training in the art of love, as Kamasutra testifies. Joint-family system was actually the general rule of family life. The head of the family governed the family unit. But Smritis also dictates the partition of family and familial properties.

The male members dominated the family and society. Though women were subordinate to men in society, yet their position was no less significant.

Women in Gupta society were idealized in literature. Basham has pointed out that ancient literature presented contradictory attitude towards women. While women were respected as anchors of the family, at the same time were mother of children and the friend of husband, a living goddess.

Dandin in “Dashakumara-charita” had proposed disparaging remarks about women in a class. He had described them as quarrelsome and disgusting. Education was permitted in a limited way to the upper class women in Gupta civilization. They not only participated in public life, but there is also reference to women teachers. There are instances also that those women used to take part in governmental and administrative’ functions.

Much of the foreign sources on India, namely the travelogues of explorers have been assembled through second hand information and it is difficult to differentiate realities from hearsay. Megatons talks about seven classes in the Indian society. He also mentions that there was no slave system in India.

But actually being a foreigner he could not understand the social structure and stratification of Indian society. During that time slave system was prevalent in India but it was completely different from that of Europe. In fact slaves in India had rather more freedom in comparison to their counterparts in Greece.